navigation

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Blog Tour: THE SNATCHABOOK Author & Illustrator Guest Post

THE SNATCHABOOK is a cute picture book about a small town where all of the animals' books and bedtime stories are disappearing. Today I get to share a guest post from the author and illustrator in response to my question:Where did you come up with the idea for this
picture book, and if/how did it change through the revision/illustration process?You can read their responses below (with early sketches of the artwork and what the main character might have looked like as a different animal...or even human!)

Where have all the bedtime stories gone? One dark, dark night in Burrow Down, a rabbit named Eliza Brown found a book and settled down...when a Snatchabook flew into town. It's bedtime in the woods of Burrow Down, and all the animals are ready for their bedtime story. But books are mysteriously disappearing. Eliza Brown decides to stay awake and catch the book thief. It turns out to be a little creature called the Snatchabook who has no one to read him a bedtime story. All turns out well when the books are returned and the animals take turns reading bedtime stories to the Snatchabook.

Helen: The
idea of a book thief who steals children’s bedtime stories popped into my head
at the end of a long day of trying (and failing) to think up interesting
storylines. At first I wasn’t sure what this book thief would be like,
or what to call him, so I played around with names; the book cruncher? The book
snatcher? These seemed to suggest quite a menacing character, which wasn’t at
all what I wanted, so I tried inverting the words - and that’s when the
Snatchabook was born. As soon as I had named him, an image started to form in
my mind of a pitiful, lonely little creature who just needs someone to read to
him. Once I had established his character, I soon saw the potential to
develop the story as a mystery with plenty of suspense and a brave heroine to
confront the thief.

In my original version, Eliza was going to be a
human girl (called Eliza Jones) and Burrow Down a village. However, our UK
publisher, Alison Green, was very keen for Eliza and the other inhabitants of
Burrow Down to be woodland animals, as she felt this would have more universal
appeal. Looking back, it’s hard to imagine it any other way now! Apart from
this, the changes to the text were very minor (by the time I sent it to the
publisher I had already worked through several drafts myself), but it was great
to have such an experienced editor to help guide the story gently in the right
direction.

Tom:As occasionally
happens, my idea for the Snatchabook as a creature came very easily and hardly
changed at all. However, since Helen originally imagined Eliza as a girl, my
first sketches of her were very different from how she eventually turned out.
It soon became clear that she was going to be an animal and I tried her out
various creatures (my
favourite being a Badger) before we arrived at a rabbit. How
Eliza was going to look was probably the biggest change that took place for me
working on this project and it all happened quite early on.So once that had been decided, it was a
question of working through the possibilities of a woodland community and
designing all the houses and their inhabitants. This was loads of fun as I grew
up in the countryside and had always loved playing in the woods near our house.
I also really enjoyed adding the visual stories to the amimals that run
independently to Helen’s text, like when they are all accusing each other of
stealing the books. I did make quite a lot of tests to work out how exactly I
was going to paint the twisty trees, falling leaves and windswept skys and these
all helped me add the suspense to the illustrations without making them scary.

Share:

No comments:

Post a Comment

welcome!

Hi! I'm Jillian Heise (pronounced Hi-Z). I'm a K-5 Library Media Teacher in southeastern Wisconsin. I previously taught 7th & 8th grade ELA in the Milwaukee area for eleven years & am National Board Certified. I am a passionate advocate for student choice in reading and the power of shared stories through #classroombookaday picture book read alouds. I also bring my literacy expertise and knowledge of books to my role as Chair of the WSRA Children’s Literature Committee.

In accordance with FTC regulations, this policy is valid from 1 August 2010. This blog is a personal blog written and edited by Jillian Heise. At times, I receive books for free from publishers or authors in exchange for an honest review. The views and opinions expressed on this blog are purely my own and I am not compensated for opinions or reviews.